Detained leaker says US public lied to about Iraq from the start

This Aug 20, 2013 file photo shows US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning departs a US military court facility as the sentencing phase continues in his trial at Fort Meade, Maryland. The detained US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks made a rare foray into public life Saturday to warn Americans they were being lied to about Iraq once more. -- PHOTO: AFP

NEW YORK (AFP) - The detained US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks made a rare foray into public life Saturday to warn Americans they were being lied to about Iraq once more.

Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence on espionage charges and other offenses for passing along 700,000 secret documents, including diplomatic cables and military intelligence files, to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the largest-scale leak in US history.

"I understand that my actions violated the law. However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved," the soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning wrote in a New York Times editorial.

"As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan." President Barack Obama said this week he was "looking at all the options" to halt the offensive that has brought militants within 80 kilometers of Baghdad's city limits, but ruled out any return of US combat troops.